1. Technical Field
This application generally relates to compliance testing techniques, and more particularly to techniques used with testing the compliance of devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Compliance testing may be performed in connection with a variety of different areas. As one example, compliance testing may be performed in connection with one or more managed devices in connection with configuration management of those devices. The devices may be connected in a network. The devices may include any one or more different components such as, for example, routers, switches, firewalls, servers, network appliances, and the like. As part of compliance testing, configuration data may be gathered from the managed devices. The configuration data may be used in a compliance test in which a comparison of the collected configuration data is compared against compliance requirements expressed in any one of a variety of different forms. Some existing techniques for compliance testing express the compliance test in a source code representation. One drawback of such techniques is that the source code is often coded in accordance with a particular set of devices or a particular configuration data format. The foregoing can mean writing additional compliance tests tailored for each different device manufacturer and type of device. Additionally, any changes to the existing configuration data format may require modification to the compliance test source code and source code which implements a corrective or remedial action.
It may therefore be desirable to utilize techniques in connection with compliance testing which provide for automating one or more aspects of compliance testing. Such techniques may also be characterized as independent with respect to the configuration data format of the managed device or other entity for which compliance testing is performed. It may also be desirable that such techniques provide ease of use in connection with various modifications and additions with respect to collected configuration data and compliance testing.